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June 28, 2008

G83: Astros 11, Red Sox 10

Lester could not hold an early 4-0 lead (as six Sox reached base after two were outs in the third) and David Aarsdma and Manny Delcarmen frittered away a 9-6 advantage.

Dustin Pedroia continued his torrid hitting, collecting four singles in five trips. He is 10-for-14 (.714) in his last three games and 17-for-27 (.630) in his last six games.

Mike Lowell also had four hits, including two doubles and a solo home run. Lowell and Kevin Youkilis each drove in three runs and Manny Ramirez knocked in two.

Broadcast Note: Had the Astros FSN feed on mlbtv. Its Aflac trivia question: "Why did the Red Sox sell Babe Ruth?" My first guess? "Because he was a selfish, rule-ignoring, egomaniac who partied every single night."

I had a feeling, however, this would not be the Aflac answer. And I was right: "So owner Harry Frazee could finance his Broadway productions." ... There is nothing quite like seeing myths that have been throughly debunked well over a decade ago -- and said debunking given considerable publicity over the last 10 years -- being proclaimed as fact by people who work in baseball every single day.

Tampa Bay also lost -- 4-3 in 13 innings to Pittsburgh -- so the .5-game lead remains.

Lester is becoming one stingy innings-eater for the Boston Red Sox. In the month of June, he hasn't given up more than two runs in any outing while at least pitching into the seventh inning in all four starts. He's 5-1 since the beginning of May, and the Sox have won each of the five outings he's pitched in since May 31.

Backe earned his first win in a month when he beat the Rays in his last outing. The right-hander yielded a two-run homer to Evan Longoria in the second inning but held the Rays scoreless through the remainder of his 6.2 innings. Backe has appeared in four games against the Red Sox, all in relief. He has allowed eight runs over 5.1 innings for a 13.50 ERA.

Looking at Backe's previous performances against the Red Sox is pointless; they were in 2002 and 2003 (two games each season).

7 comments:

I am glad you said that it would be pointless to examine that Houston pitcher's past games against the red sox. I hate when announcers talk about a pitchers record against a team. How many players have changed on that team over the years that the were pitching to them? Do all Red Sox lineups hit exactly the same as in previous years? No. So thank you for acknowledging that.

Redsock: I heard the Houston feed too, and thought that I heard your head exploding from the North when they gave that answer about the Babe. It is remarkable, isn't it? You still hear announcers say that Abner Doubleday invented baseball, too. But at least that stuff is old: what's Rob Dibble's excuse for saying that Eric Hinske "did a great job as a reserve for the Red Sox last year," as he did on Friday (and Kevin Kennedy, that pompous know-it-all hypocrite, replies, "Yup!") unless you reallly think hitting .204 is doing a "great job"? And how many times is Buck Martinez going to say that "no lead is safe in Fenway Park!" as if Fenway was still one of the top venues for run-scoring in the majors, when it hasn't been for decades?

Which, you know, brings us back to the bitching about sports blogs, as on Costas's show. If the "pros" can't be bothered to check the facts and keep up with all the players and developments when they are paid to do this full time, why are they called "professionals"? How dare they call themselves that? Their contempt for bloggers is defensive, because you expose their facile reasoning and lazy research.

An Orioles radio announcer whose name I erased from my memory banks once announced that "like most left-handers, Dennis Eckersley has a great pick-off move." Eck was a righty, of course, and had a shitty pick-off move---you could steal on him at will. That stands as the most idiotic thing I've ever heard on a ML broadcast, but that record will be broken.